What's outside

Wow! Now that’s somewhere I want to go to - a place with crocodiles in driveways:)

I love them too. I met some very nice ones in Yalta in September:)

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Well, if you ever come to Florida, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm has all extant species of Crocodilia.
http://www.alligatorfarm.com/

oooo double, triple, quadruple ‘like’ :smile:

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It will be on my top list of places to visit! I must confess I’m fascinated by crocodiles. They look quite slow and clumsy, like big trunks, but when in motion they’re incredibly agile and quick.

Thank you, I’m very glad you like the picture:)

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to @ramblingjohn
Did you see Autumnwatch last night? They showed a gorgeous Sparrowhawk with a red front… absolutely glorious. Ours don’t look like that!! Have you any idea why not? I am north of Galloway obviously, but it is still relatively mild here… a very similar climate!!

It was fine. They seem very resilient!!

From what i could make of the commentary, they were trying to put across how special it was because of it’s age (not many live long in nature). and ohhhhh it was fantastic and another reason to wish for more time to sit or wander in the great outdoors and see what appears. I’m in the process of setting up a winter feeding station in a tree at the moment !!!.

Well another wet day.


Ymenyn yr eithin - Yellow brain fungus (interestingly the welsh name includes its liking for Gorse (Eithin) but sometimes i have seen very large examples on old oak branches).

Hydref - Autumn.


Diferion glaw ar hen ddeilen dderw - Raindrops on old oak leaf. (this caught my eye today and i thought ‘only in autumn’ would i see this, anyone for photo’s that say Autumn to them).

Cennau ar gangen sydd wedi disgyn o goeden - Lichen on branch which has fallen from a tree.

Cheers J.P.

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We had a lot of gorse on Gower… notably on ‘our’ hill. I had a Cavalier who… well the others ran about and never picked up more than the odd strand… Tish could get so tangled that she fell over with her legs stuck together!! But never did I see that fungus! Would that be the salt sea wind? We lacked trees too!

That’s an interesting question as i can not give an answer about how fungus are affected by the coast, i remember we came upon parasol fungi on Mwnt so they obviously were not bothered about the location. When and where to see Ymenyn yr eithin seems to be as random as much of nature is, i can go weeks without seeing it and suddenly find it abundant.
(note: i should be outside now, but oh boy there is a lot of water falling today).

Cheers J.P.

snap!!! And thanks for answer!! (I could have done with fungus to keep the gorse away from my foolish small canine!!

Chwydden geirios ar dail derwen - cherry gall on oak leaves.

Yesterday i collected some of these with the idea of seeing what emerges in the spring (maybe interesting, maybe failure).
Of course i got impatient and wanted to see if anything was inside one of the galls.


Gall cut in half with larvae arrowed.
It’s going to be a game of chance as to how well i do at keeping these outside without them rotting or getting predated. i may have more luck with a robins pincushion i know the location of and will leave alone till Easter time (hope nothing eats it).

Cheers J.P.

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Cwtiar yn chwilio am fwyd - Coot searching for food. (best full screen).

Cyngaf mawr - Greater burdock.

Fwng gwyn bach ar coes danadl poethion - Small white fungi on stem of stinging nettle.
There are always a few mysteries outside, and these were too beautiful to ignore but i’m afraid i do not have an ID for them (i should be in the company of some more knowledgeable mycologists at the end of the month so may get an answer then).

Cheers J.P.

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They are absolutely lovely!! I can imagine how small they are and I’m sure I would never have noticed them!! Diolch yn fawr iawn!!!

p.s. I tried to take a pic of ‘our’ goldfinches, (still here!!) but I’m truly hopeless. I can’t even be sure what’s in the picture!! When I finally could look at them on the laptop, the birds had, in fact, flown!!

I was sure to put my finger in the background for scale, and lovely they certainly are.

Coesyn rhychog gwyn - White helvella (hopefully some better examples of this unusual shape fungus).

Gwrachod brown menyn sydd yn tyfu ar bedwen arian boncyff - Brown witches butter which is growing on the trunk of silver birch. (Lucky day as i don’t see this species every year, a close relative of the brain fungus from a few days ago but for some some reason not as common).

Mesen derwen, sy’n dechrau tyfu - Oak acorn which has started growing.
(saw this today and thought i would take it home to photograph development and maybe have a tree to plant in the spring).

Cheers J.P.

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Would you like a few more? The squirrels keep planting them in my lawn.

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Would you believe I didn’t realise what the big blurry thing was!! Now I can see it is your finger and really appreciate how small the pretty fungus is!!
We have at least 25 finches/tits round our feeders at any one time at the moment but it’s impossible to photograph them because the light is too low and they are moving too much!!

Aww, put a couple in pots Ray and plot their progress, i’m in favour of more trees.
(you could even give them a name)

Does your new camera have movie button, you can then take a still from the movie.

Cheers J.P.

Yes but I’ll have to practice!!!

True story!!
I was at the sink washing up and looking out at all the fluttering, moving, eating & perching finches and tits, and thinking, “I really must get the camera and instructions together to learn how to make a movie, but…”
…SWooooosh!!!
Small birds just WENT!!
Down landed the sparrowhawk, just fitting in the wired-off space around the feeders! A second to shake him/herself and up and off flew the hawk again. All small birds survived…
“…but I’d have to have the camera actually working to catch… anything like… THAT!”

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Yep, that’s what i call a lucky day.

Wnes i weld, gwydd Aifft ar fwrdd picnic - i saw an Egyptian goose on a picnic table.

Cheers J.P.

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[quote=“ramblingjohn, post:939, topic:971”]

Yep, that’s what i call a lucky day.[/quote]
I had a similar experience a few years ago. Watching the birds out the kitchen window when suddenly swoosh and then down came this fellow, a sharp-shinned hawk (we think):

Having missed his lunch, he soon took off again:

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